Previously I looked at the Spiritual Disciples as those things that God gives so that we can get to a place where God can start to do things in our lives. Let’s take it futher, and talk about “the way of disciplined grace”.

It is called “grace”, because it is free. It is “disciplined” because there is something for us to do. Dietrich Bonhoeffer writes in his book, The Cost of Discipleship, that grace is free, but that it is not cheap. We must understand that God’s grace is unearned and unearnable. If we expect to grow, we must take up a consciously chosen course of action involving both individual and group life. And that is the purpose of the Spiritual Disciplines.

The Disciplines of the spiritual life leads to the inner transformation and healing for which we seek. There are one of two possible misleading ways towards that transformation and healing (both of which doesn’t really work):

Heresy of moralism – The way of moral bankruptcy through human strivings for righteousness.

Heresy of antinomianism – The way of moral bankruptcy through the absence of human strivings.

Remember: The Disciplines does not produce the change. It only puts us in the place where the change can occur.

In the meantime, why don’t you look at that paragraph talking about “disciplined grace”? If you could, how would you explain the concept of “disciplined grace”? Do you think that there are an unhealthy leaning towards either “human strivings toward righteousness” or “the absence of human striving toward righteousness?”. Explain why you think that way, and also how it can be corrected – not only in the church*, but also in your own life.

*I’m writing church here with a lower case letter, because I want your thoughts about your specific congregation, not the Body of Christ, in which case I’d write it with a capital letter (i.e. “Church”)